WarSclerotic

Dozens of American terror victims have filed a civil ‎lawsuit against the European Investment Bank over ‎its financial ties with Iran. ‎

The Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center, which represents ‎the plaintiffs, has asked a Washington district ‎court to seize $1 billion in Iranian funds held at ‎EIB, saying the money is used to sponsor terrorism.‎

The Israeli advocacy group argued that Iran has never met ‎any previous ruling ordering it to pay damages to ‎hundreds of terror victims and their families, ‎saying that the money should be used to pay some of ‎those debts. ‎

The group has also petitioned the court to force EIB ‎to disclose the exact nature and scope of the assets ‎its holds for Iran. ‎

If the motion is granted, every Iranian dollar that ‎enters one of the Tehran government’s EIB accounts ‎would be automatically deferred to the plaintiffs. ‎This would make Iran’s efforts to conduct business ‎in Europe and worldwide exceedingly difficult. ‎

Shurat Hadin’s motion was reportedly filed against ‎the backdrop of a dispute between the European ‎Investment Bank’s captains and the European Union ‎officials controlling it. ‎

EIB’s management has reportedly decided to sever its ‎business ties with Iran over the serious ‎implications these ties will have once the U.S. ‎reimposes financial sanctions on the Islamic ‎republic next month.‎

EU officials, however, have been sparing no effort ‎to appease Iran in the wake of U.S. President Donald ‎Trump’s exit from the 2015 nuclear deal, and have ‎therefore instructed the bank to increase its ‎investments in Iran. ‎

EPA

‎”There are close to $43 billion in unresolved ‎American verdicts against Iran, which has been found ‎liable for terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas, ‎Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. Iran has ‎refused to ‎compensate the victims and is continuing ‎to provide ‎monetary support to terrorist groups ‎around the ‎world,” Shurat Hadin Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said Sunday.‎

‎”Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. No bank in ‎the Western world can carry on doing business with ‎Iran as long as it continues to support murderous ‎terrorist attacks, and as long as the Iranian regime ‎refuses to pay out the judgments awarded against it ‎on behalf of victims of terror,” she said.‎

Darshan-Leitner further asserted that “if the ‎European Investment Bank continues to do business ‎with Iran, funds sent to Iran through it will be ‎diverted directly to financing terrorism. ‎

‎”We will not rest and we will pursue the Iranian ‎regime until it takes responsibility for its ‎atrocities it has supported and compensates the ‎victims, as ordered by U.S. courts,” she said.